You want to make a jig on top of the boat before you do any work. Then when lift off the deck and flip it over you will not have any distortion.

Jon

You may be able to get away with some smaller decks in lifting them in 2 spots. However I wouldnt if you dont have to. You would be best spreading out the load, even if it is with 2x4s.. like building a lifting frame for the deck.

If you have the time & space to build a jig for the deck to roll ot once it is off that is a good idea that audifin had. However it is not always fiesable.. But if you can do it the deck repair & new layup will go faster & easier than working upside down.

I have one we are redoing now, it is a real PITA.. All of the coring was wet & rotted.. ..

Jamie / Lakeside


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I figured he could aways pull it outside to do the flip.....

It is bad enough doing stringers but being upside down.... there is not enough money in the world to get me to do that....
You glass guys are a few short of a sandwich anyhow so

Today I looked into building a lifting jig like you guys suggested. I'm not sure how many mounting points I should have. Could I get away with a total of three mounting points instead of 4 like in the picture below? It would save a decent amount of work. What would be the best way/areas to tie into the deck? I was thinking maybe I could screw into area's such as where the cleats were. Will this be strong enough? I also noticed the bow does not have anything solid to tie into besides a single cleat about 3 feet back from the very tip. Would I be crazy to drill a hole through the deck for mounting purposes and fill the hole after I place the deck back on?

Here is something along the lines of what im thinking:
Blue would be mouting points and Yellow would be for lifting/rotating.



REALLY appreciate all the help guys!!!

That looks good except for I would use plywood instead of the cross bracing that you have. Call me capt. overkill but I know from working on houses that stuff can move on you. You just want to make it as stiff as possible. IMO using cleat holes is fine. I would use a backing plate under the deck while you lift the deck. This could be a piece of plywood, 2x4 anything. You can also used the same idea to sapport the bow. Run a 2X4 up the middle of the boat while you lift it. Once you have it flipped over then remove the 2X. Remeber the stiffer this thing is the better the job. Don't rush it. Once you lift off the deck make sure that you sapport the hull sides as well. Depending on how long it takes you to do the rebuild the hull can distort as well.

Jon

Hmm Plywood is a great idea..Would be stiffer and faster than the 2X4's. I went to the shop to take some measurements and come up with a material list. Here is a quick sketch of the final framework I came up with. Before I buy everything I would like to know what you think.

The blue is supports that I can mount directly to kleet areas and the green is supports that I'm unfortunately going to have to drill through the deck and patch the holes when I'm finished. I'm going to use your idea to wrap the whole thing in plywood in order to lock it all together. I'm also going to pick up some swiveling wheels I can mount on top so when I flip it I can roll it around the shop.



I hope to get this all done tomorrow if the weather permits!

All your mounting points are only in contact with a few places. The problem that I see with that is once you pull the core the parts in the middle will want to deflect. IMO what you want to do is to have as many contact points to the deck as humanly possible. You also need to make sure that your deck will not flex or twist front to back and side to side. You probably only need a few places to actually lift it off. You will need a LOT of contact points to keep the thing in shape when inverted and the core reomoved. You can used cardboard templates to help you contore your wood to the hull.....

Jon

Yes, I plan to do alot more bracing on the inside of the framework to "cup" the deck and keep everything in place when its upside down but figured it would be a little much to sketch out. The main thing I was concerned about was the weight of the entire deck and how much support it would need when being lifted. Should these 7 main points be enough to safely lift the deck? How does the factory go about lifting a finished deck into place when they cant drill holes?

I would not drill any new holes. Once you loosen it you can slide straps under the deck to sapport it. The deck is lighter then you would think it would be.